Category Archives: local news

local news

Two cities now in the hunt for new managers

So … just like we have two neighboring North Texas cities looking for the right person to lead municipal staffs and guide their cities toward the future.

Ben White, who had served as Farmersville city manager for 15 years, resigned suddenly the other evening. I called him the day after to wish him well, but he said he couldn’t discuss the details of his departure, telling me he had agreed to a clause that keeps him quiet. I get it.

Mike Mashburn had quit the Princeton city manager’s position a few days earlier after serving just shy of two years. I didn’t know Mashburn well enough to call him and I doubt he would have taken my call. His departure has the scent of a forced resignation, although the city council noted specifically he had resigned “voluntarily.”

I have worked in both communities for the past few years as a freelance reporter for weekly newspapers that serve the communities. I know Farmersville a good bit better than Princeton, where I live.

My sense is that Farmersville’s council thought it was time for White to call it a career. I believe the city is well run and lacks much of the turmoil that bedevils Princeton.

I now shall reissue my call to both city councils as they begin their search for a new chief administrator, which is to insist they do so in the open. Do not spring anyone on the community without first giving us a chance to give them the once-over. Mashburn took the reins in Princeton without any prior exposure to the public. That was a bad call.

Ben White has been a dependable hand, but Farmersville does have nagging issues with which it must deal.

Streets! They are in terrible condition. Gotta get ’em fixed and made passable.

So, change is afoot in these two communities. I wish the city councils well as they embark on the search to find a new person. Just don’t mess up the process.

crime news, legal news, local news, national news

Impeachment coming? Sure, bring it!

Let’s assume for a moment that the political smart money is telling us the truth, that the next Congress is going to flip to Democratic control and that the House of Reps is going to launch an impeachment against Donald Trump.

We all have heard that Democrats might gain 30 seats on the Republicans who now control Congress. I can’t say whether the pundits think the 30-seat gain is at the top of their projection, at the bottom … or somewhere in the middle. If Trump continues on his slap-dash course it well could exceed the 30-seat turnover by a significant margin.

Is an impeachment necessary? I will allow my bias to peek through the haze and declare: Damn right it’s necessary! I will offer this caveat: I want Democrats to assure us that they can more than one thing at a time, that they can proceed with impeaching Trump and resume their constitutional role of making laws.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York is likely to be elected speaker and he ought to take a page from the book followed in Texas by then-Speaker Pete Laney. The West Texas cotton farmer said he always simply allowed “the will of the House” to have its way. And so it went during the years that Laney served as the Man of the House.

The will of the U.S. House should be allowed to play the hand it is dealt. If most members believe — as I do — that Trump has committed an impeachable offense or three, then it should act. It also should not allow the legislative process to get caught in a political vise that will clamp down around the White House.

We’ve all heard them say that lawmakers can “do more than one thing at a time.” Impeaching a president is serious business. So is legislating.

local news

Frozen in time at museum

My friend and I today toured the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, which is within a chip shot of Dealey Plaza in the city’s downtown district.

We got near the end of our tour when suddenly I froze, transfixed by the images being shown and by the voice attributed to one of the death camp survivors who had been freed by Allied soldiers near the end of World War II.

My friend asked if I was OK. I shook my head “no.” Did I want to leave. Again, I said “no.” I wanted to stay and listen to the voice tell me of the unimaginable deprivation inflicted on millions of Jews. My reaction to it all caught me by surprise.

Yes, I know all about the Holocaust. I know all about the extermination of 6 million human beings who happened to be Jewish. I had toured Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam with my bride in 2016 and knew of the suffering she endured after being turned over to the Nazis by her fellow Dutch citizens. In 2009, I had the high honor of visiting the famed Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem. So, none of what I learned today was a surprise.

Maybe it all just caught me in a moment of weakness. The exhibit reminded me of the depths that the human heart can plunge. And it surely plunged beyond what anyone could predict when Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany in 1933. He formed the Third Reich, which he said would last 1,000 years.

In April 1945, Hitler married his mistress Evan Braun and on their wedding night they committed suicide … ending the Third Reich after 12 of the most miserable years possible.

The museum in downtown Dallas reminded me of why the world must hold fast to its solemn pledge: Never again.

local news, media news

Explaining changes in the media climate

In just a few weeks, I will receive an opportunity to do something I haven’t given much thought about doing … which is to tell a group of friends, associates and maybe even a stranger or two about why the media climate has changed so dramatically in the United States of America.

I will speak to the Farmersville Rotary Club, of which I have been a member for the past few years.

I told our club president this week that I have come up with a concept of the talk I intend to deliver. My task now is to organize it into a document that spells out what I have witnessed and what I have experienced.

I have told friends over the years that I was a victim of the changing media climate. Readers of this blog have read about my tale already. My daily newspaper career came crashing to a halt in August 2012. I have moved on and have rebuilt my life. I had hoped to retire gracefully from my job in Amarillo, but I was denied that opportunity when the publisher decided to hire someone else to do the job I had done there for 18 years. But, hey … that was then. As for the here and now, I am still writing for newspapers, as a freelancer who writes for a group of weeklies in Collin County. Therefore, I am not extinct!

I am not alone among journalists who have been shown the door in unceremonious fashion. Declining newspaper circulation provides plenty of testimony to what has happened to that medium.

Now I get to explain it all to my friends in Farmersville. Why write about this in my blog? I just want to share with you the opportunity I have received to put a little personal perspective on on a worldwide phenomenon.

The good news for me is that my talk will be brief. The difficulty might come in trying to condense it into a bite-sized tale that I believe will have a happy ending.

local news

Get busy, Princeton

Princeton, Texas, is hurtling head first into municipal adulthood … but it appears to have little vision of what it wants to become or how it intends to get there.

The city manager and his top assistant quit in December. The manager was on the job for less than two years. Now he’s gone on to pursue “other interests,” which is one way of saying he left without a clear idea of where he will end up.

A long-awaited and much-hyped commercial project on the corner of Beauchamp Boulevard and US Highway 380 has yet to show any signs of life. The city appears to be up to its armpits in litigation over the construction of apartment complexes and a new residential development along Longneck Road.

Ask anyone who lives near Princeton about my city and you get a curious look of befuddlement, amusement and even a bit of sorrow over what residents here are having to endure. City Hall is not a well-oiled, fully functional, machine that runs with all cylinders firing the way they’re supposed to.

My wife and I moved here in February 2019 hoping to be on the cutting edge of a population explosion that is destined to lead the city to greatness. Well, greatness remains a distant dream.

Eugene Escobar defeated Brianna Chacon for the mayor’s seat pledging a more “transparent” government. I think he’s trying. Chacon didn’t deliver much transparency when she engineered the hiring of the city manager who lasted a month short of two years on the job.

I am ready for the city to start showing signs of actual maturity. I am ready for City Hall to act as if the folks who run our local government can extinguish the last flames of confusion and get down to the task of providing services efficently for a city of 40,000 residents (give or take).

A new year has dawned. I welcome 2026. I am going to remain optimistic, but with an abundance of caution.

local news

Adapting to custom

For those of you who have forgotten — and that’s probably all of you — I once declared myself to be a surprisingly adaptable human being, given that I uprooted myself from my home in Oregon in the 1980s to move my family to Texas.

That was in 1984 and by and large we all learned how to change many of our thoughts about our new home and to adapt to many of the customs practiced here. It wasn’t until a young woman joined our family in March 2012 that I truly grasped what one of those customs means to the average Texas family.

Eating black-eyed peas to welcome the new year.

The newest family member married one of my sons. She is a Plano native and has lived in North Texas all her life. She prepares black-eyed peas each new year and persuaded us to join her in eating them to welcome good luck to our family. We have done so since. I am going to do so again this year. I likely will continue doing so for as long as I draw breath.

The good news is that I happen to like black-eyed peas. They make a wonderful soup dish. I suspect I’ll just heat ’em up and consume ’em right off the stove top. The good luck will be sure to follow, right?

This is a big deal for this transplanted Texan. We began our Texas journey in Beaumont, then moved way up yonder to Amarillo and finally settled in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. My family and I have called Texas home since the spring of 1984. That makes almost 42 years waking up under the Lone Star and beginning a new year.

The state has changed in many ways since we first arrived here. Politically? You bet! Texas used to be reliably Democratic. Now it’s reliably Republican. For that matter, Oregon — where I was born in 1949 — has gone from nominally Republican to hard-core Democratic in about the span of time as Texas’s re-generation. Who knew … ?

I did not grow up in a family that lived with tradition. We didn’t participate in activities based on family history, or state culture, or religion. I guess we lived more or less for the moment. Texas taught my family and me that some traditions are worth keeping alive.

Eating black-eyed peas to ring in the new year is one of them.

Happy New Year … and bon appetit.

local news, Uncategorized

Following custom this holiday season

Custom reigns supreme in my humble North Texas home, which really doesn’t amount to much, except that it means something to little ol’ me.

It is custom in my home that I stay put the day after Christmas, just as I do the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday is a non-starter in my home. I leave that madness to others to pursue to varying degrees of success.

Same is true for Christmas. The Eve night will be quiet. I might go to to church around midnight. I will make that call later. I will spend the holiday with my sons, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

I made a pact long ago to not let Christmas stress me out. I was faithful to that pact once again this year. I finished my shopping five whole days early, which is pretty good for me. I have been seen frequenting stores on Christmas Eve looking for that “perfect gift” for my special loved one. I got it done early this year.

The new year awaits. 2026 looks like it’s going to be a good one for me and for those close to me. I’ll just gear up for the festivities.

I’ll follow the customary path into the coming year.

With that … Merry Christmas and let’s prepare for a year full of surprises and dreams come true.

local news

Reflecting on future Christmases

I know what you’re thinking, that we cannot “reflect” on events that haven’t yet occurred, as the term applies to the past.

I’ll make a stab at dispelling that notion.

Soon it will be three years since I experienced the worst day of my life with the passing of my bride after a savage bout with glioblastoma, aka cancer of the brain. I miss Kathy Anne every day. We were married for 51 years and one doesn’t lose a life partner without considerable pain.

Christmas was her favorite holiday. My wife would tear through the house like the proverbial Tasmanian Devil. She would deck the digs with boughs of holly, depictions of Santa and Rudy the Reindeer … along with Nativity Scenes depicting the birth of Jesus Christ, which is the real reason Christians celebrate the holiday. And every year she would tell me, “I am not very good at decorating,” which of course demonstrated a degree of false modesty.

I’ve been looking forward to this holiday. I am not the decorator that my bride was, but my modest North Texas home is full of love not just for the memories we shared, but for the family I will see very soon on Christmas.

We will laugh and carry on. We’ll enjoy the holiday fully. It’s all part of the journey I have undertaken since losing my bride.

I am declaring that my journey is complete. I cannot guarantee that I’ll never shed a tear. Indeed, I tell fellow widowers that they, too, likely will feel a sadness that will sneak up on them. Don’t fight it, I tell them.

I’m done fighting my own feelings. I intend to enjoy this season from this one forward.

Merry Christmas!

local news

Here’s why open search is vital

I want to restate my desire for the Princeton City Council to conduct an open, transparent and accountable search for a new city manager.

Now I also intend to tell you why I think it is vital.

Mike Mashburn resigned as city manager after serving a little less than two years. He was out of his element running a city in the midst of a growth explosion such as Princeton. Now he’s gone and will pursue his future elsewhere. I wish him good luck.

Now the council is embarking on a search for a new chief administrator. Why is it vital for the council to do it the right way this time? It is because the city manager is going to make a healthy six-figure salary running a city on the move. As manager he or she will be answerable to more than 40,000 residents. They will call on him or her to ensure the city can solve all manner of issues.

Potholes in the street? Spotty lighting on some of the city’s darker streets? Ensuring the garbage gets picked up? Riding herd on the police department if a spike in crime occurs? Ensuring firefighters respond quickly to emergencies? Helping resolve violations of city ordinances?

The council makes precisely one hiring decision. It is the city manager. The manager then hires department heads who run the various publicly funded departments to take care of the issues I have just lined out … understanding that I have left other issues off my list.

Mashburn got the council’s nod on the very night council members met him for the first time. Brianna Chacon was mayor in January 2024. She interviewed Mashburn and decided all by herself that he was the one for the job. She introduced the designated manager to the council, which in my view then foolishly voted to hire him on the spot.

No one on the council seemingly thought that Mashburn was being foisted on the city. They could not possibly have asked any sort of difficult questions while meeting initially with him that night in executive session.

The next city manager must endure a thorough vetting by the council, by relevant department heads and most importantly by the public this individual will serve. We all need a voice in making this critical decision. The concept of good government requires it.

local news

City needs careful search for new manager

My head is still spinning over the news that former Princeton City Manager Mike Mashburn quit after less than two years on the job in the fastest-growing city in the United States of America.

I am trying to process the enormous task that awaits the City Council as it ponders who to hire to manage that explosive growth. Frankly, this is where the council is going to earn its keep … which doesn’t involve money because the council basically serves for zero pay.

Mashburn seemed to be in way over his head as Princeton’s chief municipal officer. The city is growing at a 30% annual clip, totaling today more than 45,000 residents — give or take. It falls on the city manager to ensure the city can provide services to those new residents who are flocking here because of the relatively inexpensive cost of housing.

Princeton by definition has become a classic bedroom community, with the vast majority of its growth coming with new homes being built. The city has added little commercial development compared to what has occurred with its residential explosion.

What kind of individual should the council hire? Here’s an idea. The city needs to find someone with proven skill at managing a city on the go, such as Princeton. There might be a newly retired city manager out there looking for a challenge. My goodness, Princeton’s enormous growth rate should present anyone with a significant task of managing its constant change.

Or … there might be a younger person lurking who has a bold vision for what he or she wants in this city. He or she might have a doable plan that guides Princeton from a city known primarily for its hideous traffic along its main drag to a place full of entertainment opportunities. I have lost count of the times people have asked me, “How do you cope with that traffic?” I answer: It’s simple; I just stay home during rush hour. But if I have to plunge into the belly of that traffic beast, I always budget longer travel time knowing I will suffer through plenty of “stop time” on U.S. 380 or on any of the many side roads that thousands of others take to “avoid the traffic.”

I am left to wish the council good luck as it seeks to make this next key hiring decision. Oh, and one request must come with it: Conduct this search openly, telling us where you stand, where you are looking and what precisely you need in the next person who will manage the city I call home.